OUGD505: Possible Resolutions

Besides all this, social media sites are deterring people away from the real world and results in individuals spending far too much time on their phones/tablets/laptops.  People aren't experiencing real life to the full because of this virtual social reality and absorbing internet culture; which is something I plan to propose change in within the practical side of this brief.

I've considered some visual paths I could go down with this topic, including using the image of a phone screen in different ways to have the audience relate to the posters in the same way they use their phone, for example having a phone screen as the whole poster, or from the same angle that they look at their own phone or tablet from.

Another consideration was a 'no post month' where participants would refrain from posting anything on social media for a month, to try and alleviate the amount of time spent scrolling pointlessly through these websites. Even for a week I imagine this task would be hard for some people.
A similar study was conducted which required a few young volunteers to give up their phones for a week, and reactions showed the students almost incapable of the task.

Using screenshots and layouts of existing social media sites will increase the relation to the format of phone use, so portrait orientated posters would be ideal for this.

Thoughts and development:

OUGD503: Photographer's Logo

I recently got asked to produce a hand lettered logotype for a photography student within the college. He showed me some examples of work he would like something similar to, showing his name with accompanying text stating photography/video work.  From these images I gathered that he wants a hand lettered logo in general, though I kept a rough idea of these strokes and compositions in mind when producing my initial sketches.

I also researched further into lettered logotypes and widened the range of styles I was looking at for inspiration.  This also made me think about the different tools I could use to create the design as well as compositions including additional text to show what the brand is selling.

I experimented with various weights, angles, and styles before showing him this range so he could make an informed decision based on what could be achieved.  Out of the preliminary sketches, he opted for the design that showed both name and surname parallel to each other on a diagonal axis.

I experimented with the parallel text composition working with the joins of the J and y, which I interpreted to make a frame around the text, which links the concept to James' photography and video work; both of which require skill to frame the content.  I considered using the idea of a circular shape representative of a lens to enclose the text, however decided against this idea as a lot of photography logos use this concept and my client has shown an interest in the more formally written style.

When we had agreed on the best composition, James requested that some minor changes were made to his favourite design as well as choosing the phrase 'lens based media' as the most appropriate.  I re drew the chosen design at a larger size without the flick on the 'y' and reduced the flick on the 'J', reducing the decorative elements.

OUGD503: Mock print out

To see our design in physical form we used the digital print facilities in college to try out paper choices and sizing.  By doing this we could see if our design worked when printed to scale, which is important to check that the type is legible at the size we have made it, and the inside spreads suitable to write on.  We also noticed a few errors in the illustrations which we later corrected, and saw how the colours we had chosen worked in printed form rather than only on screen.

By printing out a mock version to take with us to a meeting with print specialists Pressision, we found there are a few features we could improve on, including moving page numbers in slightly so there's more space in the border, and changing the type on the ID card so it's legible at a small point size against the patterned background.  The inside pages will need to be printed on a fairly thin stock so that the booklet isn't too thick when bound, however we want to use a heavier stock for the cover, which is another thing we will discuss with James in our visit.

We also concluded that it would be best to staple bind the passport for both ease and cost efficiency.  Although we considered stitching the pages together, as seen on the UK passports we have and many other small booklets, for this purpose we want to keep the design simple and relatively uncomplicated to produce.

OUGD503: Vector Illustrations

While looking on the Airbnb website for photographic inspiration to inform the illustrations, we found several photos with a range of different views which we thought fully represented the kind of places customers of Airbnb can stay on their holidays or trips away.  We tried to include a variety of locations, from beaches to mountains to street views.  

Using these photos as a reference I took on the role of making some rough sketches, changing the perspective so the appearance is almost completely flat, unifying all the illustrations.  These were mainly to create the best possible composition and to work out the tones, and to make sure that each drawing was of a consistent style and showed a broad range of scenery before moving on to the computer to digitise them. We split this task between us, taking three or four to vectorise each.

We looked at the colour palette in Airbnb's guidelines, and chose 5 colour variations to make these illustrations, as we felt this provided enough alteration throughout the booklet. We tested out all the colours in Airbnb's brand guidelines to begin with, but chose not to include the lighter shades such as the peach coloured 'ebisu' because when the whole image is changed to 50% opacity on the InDesign document, the lighter shades weren't contrasting enough when printed against the white background.

Our initial thought was to include 50 spreads, which would give space for 50 different stays using Airbnb.  We discussed this and based on how thick the passport would need to be, plus the reality that 50 trips away from home is quite a lot (and we want to keep users engaged with the Airbnb passport), we have opted for 20 double page spreads.  Each illustration will cover one double page spread, and is recommended that for each stay one spread is used.

From the initial drawings, we split the task of vectorising these into block shapes to create the images. We used variations of opacity per 10%, ranging from 10% - 90% to show depth and perspective.  Originally we planned to use more than one colour in each illustration, but decided that this would deter focus from the writing and become too complex as a background image.

On some of the designs (such as the curtains in the one below), areas of the design were kept as a low opacity over the rest, whereas most of the design was divided so that overlapping shapes didn't show through the different opacities.  By keeping it reduced to block shapes we were able to produce clean and simple designs.

We added semi circle cut outs in the centre of either side of the spread, which gave us space to put the page number on the right and AirBnB logo on the left.  The colour of these icons will match the colour of the illustration on that page.  The 10mm border is consistent on every page.

Altogether we created 10 different illustrations, which will each appear twice in the passport.  Each of the 5 colours is used twice.  Below are the earlier versions before matching up the pairs of colours.  We also had made another illustration but decided it was a bit too complex to fit with the rest of the scenes and didn't follow the same degree of minimalism.  Instead we opted for a design that showed a partial section of architecture and surrounding scenery - as most of the illustrations do.